Op-Ed: committed to managing opioid settlement funds
Read below an excerpt from OneOhio Recovery Foundation Secretary Larry Kidd's recent op-ed in the Portsmouth Daily Times. You can read the full op-ed (here)
As I worked to do my part to combat and alleviate the drug problem in Jackson County, I heard from countless individuals and families impacted by drug addiction. While some made it into recovery, too many lives have been, and continue to be, lost. Recently, my family and I faced the devastating reality that my one of my own family members could not escape the grip of addiction. For the past several years, we – like so many others across Ohio – have struggled to help an immediate family member with a substance use disorder.
With this experience dealing with drug addiction in my own family, as well as my experience as a business leader based in an area of the state hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, I was honored to be appointed by Governor Mike DeWine to serve on the OneOhio Recovery Foundation’s Board of Directors. Created under the leadership of Governor DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost, and with support from many other state and local leaders, the Foundation’s mission is to advance Ohio’s addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts now and into the future. Funded by a portion of the opioid settlement funds Ohio is receiving from the pharmaceutical industry as a consequence of its role in the national opioid epidemic, the Foundation will support local efforts to prevent and combat addiction, with some funds invested to support those efforts for the long term.
In May, the Foundation’s board met for the first time. While just a few months old, our 29-member, all-volunteer board is hard at work establishing the necessary governance policies, hiring staff, and taking care of other essentials like setting up bank accounts to ensure the Foundation is properly equipped to oversee the nearly $450 million in distributor settlement funds it will receive over the next 18 years. Sadly, many of my fellow board members from across Ohio have lived experience with addiction like I do, but this only inspires us to set the Foundation on a stable path to advance its mission of helping communities combat and end the drug epidemic.
